Miller takes lead in supes race

STOCKTON - In a battle between two colleagues on the City Council, Kathy Miller led Paul Canepa in a race for an open seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

Zachary K. Johnson

STOCKTON - In a battle between two colleagues on the City Council, Kathy Miller led Paul Canepa in a race for an open seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

Councilwoman Miller had 52.3 percent of the vote with 23 percent of precincts reporting, and Vice Mayor Canepa had 47.4 percent.

The two have been fighting for the District 2 seat on the county board, a district that includes parts of central and northeast Stockton. It's one of two seats on the board up for election this year. District 4, which includes Lodi, will go to a November runoff if none of the three candidates running gets more than 50 percent of the vote.

But with only two candidates in District 2, that race will be decided soon. As they gathered in post-campaign parties to wait for the returns to roll in, both campaigns thought the race would be close, and nobody said they saw a decisive result shaping up in the early tallies.

"It's still close. We'll wait and see," Canepa said in a side room at Valley Brew with supporters, friends and family.

But it is still nice for the first returns to show a lead, Miller said.

During the campaign, Miller, 58, presented herself as a leader capable of making tough decisions, even when those decisions were unpopular.

And since she was elected to the City Council in 2008, she's made plenty of unpopular decisions surrounding the city's financial crisis and bankruptcy.

Canepa, 47, came to the council later than Miller after being elected in 2010. He's touted his position heading the city's audit committee during the city's recovery as good experience in municipal finance.

The Canepa name is well-known in Stockton. The family business, Canepa's Car Wash, has been a city institution for decades.

The two were competing for a seat held by Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller, a former City Council member elected to the county board in 2006. He's reached his two-term limit.

So has District 4 Supervisor Ken Vogel. His district includes Lodi, Ripon and Escalon and all the rural areas running along the county's northern and eastern frontier.

The campaign of Russ Munson, 67, a Lodi businessman and chief partner of Wine & Roses Hotel Restaurant Spa and resort vastly outraised and outspent his opponents in the lead-up to primary contest.

He was running against Ripon Mayor Chuck Winn, 68, and retired County Administer Manuel Lopez, 69, a Ripon resident.

Munson led with 44.5 percent of the vote with 14.2 percent of precincts reporting. Winn was close behind, with 39.2 percent of the vote. Lopez trailed with 16 percent.

"It's hard to predict. ... Hopefully it goes to November and we'll have another opportunity to campaign," Winn said.

"From the start, I could see it would be very difficult to get 50 percent," Munson said, saying that the race drew some strong candidates. He said he would be ready to compete in the November runoff. He wasn't sure if it would come to that, since he went into the primary not knowing what to expect from his first political campaign. "But I'm there now. So watch out; here I come."

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/johnsonblog and on Twitter @zacharykjohnson.